MOOP Map Live, Day 7: The Green Streak Ends

Greetings MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! Here in Gerlach, the Playa Restoration All-Star team is being blown across the sweeping expanse of the Black Rock Desert by winds that have gusted as high as 50mph.

Luckily for Black Rock City, these rockstar Restoration experts are sticking to the task at hand, grabbing every last bit of MOOP, and still managing to look great doing it.

Burning Man Playa Restoration 2013, Day 15.

Burning Man Playa Restoration 2013, Day 13.

Burning Man Playa Restoration 2013, Day 8.

Let’s look back to Day 7 of Resto, which was the final day of line sweeps within the city grid. After an extended green, clean and MOOP-free streak, everything suddenly changed as the line reached 8:00 and Laissez Faire — and encountered a yellow and red zone that extended over eight city blocks.

Regrouping after that difficult 8-block streak, the line then swept its way from 10:00 to 2:00 across the open-playa side of Esplanade. You know, that place where every single one of us spent a big chunk of our time during Burning Man. Should any of us really be surprised that the entire Esplanade was yellow? No, not really — but still, we could have done better. How can we all be more conscious of what’s falling off our bikes and out of our pockets as we cruise the Strip? How much more time can each of us put in to pick up MOOP during the daytime in those high-traffic zones?

Despite encountering a significant number of yellow blocks that slowed their pace, the line sweepers still managed to cover over 40 blocks in a single day. Let’s give ’em a hand for their efforts!

The city streets have now all been checked by the Playa Restoration line sweeps, and now our brave moopers are turning their focus to the open playa. Black Rock City, here is your MOOP Map for Day 7.

Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.

REMEMBER: This is a work in progress, not the final map.

MOOP Map Legend:

MoopMeter-2013day7GREEN: GO! GO! GO! The Line Sweep moves quickly because it’s clean. Minimal time and effort spent in this location.
YELLOW: Caution! The Line Sweep moves at a stop-and-go pace. Moderate time and effort spent in this location.
RED: Full stop. The Line Sweepers are on their hands and knees. A ton of MOOP. Extensive time and effort in this location.

Wondering what the black dots are? Those are the locations where we found larger items left behind on the playa last week: trash bags, abandoned tents, scaffolding, anything bigger than a bread box. All those items have been removed, but we do record their GPS points.

No doubt about it, there’s some room to improve in today’s results. All you campers whose areas were green, plan to talk to your neighbors next year about how you successfully Leave No Trace on the playa! As a city, we’ve got the hang of this now. Let’s work together to make those pesky yellow zones go away.

Time is running out for the Playa Restoration All-Stars, and the BLM inspection is just around the corner. Will we pass? What other surprises await us on the open playa? Find out real soon on MOOP Map Live 2013!

See more photos from Playa Restoration 2013 on Flickr.

About the author: The Hun

The Hun

The Hun, also known as J.H. Fearless, has been blogging for Burning Man (and many other outlets) since 2005, which is also the year she joined the BRC DPW on a whim that turned out to be a ten-year commitment. Since then she's won some awards for blogging, built her own creative business, and produced some of the Burning Blog's most popular stories and series. She co-created a grant-funded art piece, "Refoliation," in 2007, and stood next to it watching the Man burn on Monday night during a full lunar eclipse. She considers that, in many ways, to have been the symbolic end of Burning Man that was. The Hun lives in Reno with DPW Shade King, Quiet Earp. You may address her as "The Hun" or "Hun". If you call her "Honey" she reserves the right to cut you.

32 Comments on “MOOP Map Live, Day 7: The Green Streak Ends

  • Nexus says:

    Thank you, from DC. Just thank you for all the work y’all have been putting in since most of us left the city during Exodus. And thank you for the updates.

    Already with y’all in looking ahead to next year and thinking about ways to keep moving forward :-D

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  • Phando says:

    Thank you for all the hard work!
    Seeing the moop map each year is a “leave no trace” report card. Getting a green is a little reward. I know its impossible, but it would be awesome if we could show the moop when theme camps leave compared to when the event is over. When theme camps clean up and move out they open up prime real-estate that people inevitably move into. These people have no skin in the game and tend to leave lots of traces. Come on people please clean up after yourself!

    Phando

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  • The Hun says:

    Thank you Nexus! Love yer work!

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  • The Hun says:

    Phando, not sure I totally understand your comment. Are you saying that theme camps often leave Burning Man before it is over, and then new people move into their spots and leave a mess? That does not seem like a common occurrence, maybe I am misunderstanding your point. Still, you’re right — I’d love to see the difference between a theme camp at the end of the event, and a few days later when the cleanup crew is finished. It would be so useful to know how much MOOP the big camps end up taking away with them.

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  • Thank you for your unwavering hard work.

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  • JV says:

    That yellow block starting at 8 & L, were those streets added later? Typically they are taken up by the later arrivals, possibly a higher percentage of first-timers than other days. Might explain the yellow status, new people not used to being at a large event and having to clean up after themselves. At any rate, the vast majority of the city map is green. Good to see. Great work, everyone!

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  • JV says:

    And for a little comparison, check out these aerial photos of the Glastonbury Festival, post-event. An absolute sea of garbage.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2403467/Reading-Festival-2013–fetch-dustpan-brush.html?ICO=most_read_module

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  • Christi says:

    Good work guys..and noticeably there is not a sparkle pony or some gal in a feather headdress in the bunch..but I sure hope they are reading the after reports

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  • Buckstar says:

    In response to JV, yes, two new blocks were added on the 9:00 side of the City on Wednesday, and quickly filled in. I drove those roads every single day during my day-job on playa.

    The vast majority of the participants I saw out here were in those ridiculously large and expensive RVs, (although there was a liberal sprinkling of the usual BRC denizens as well).

    But I think the people out on M and N (roads which never had actual names, BTW), were NOT affiliated with camps. They were people that came in without affiliation and camped on their own. Were they tourists? Were they regular suburban BRC dwellers who prefer the quiet? I have no idea.

    Generally speaking, the prevailing winds were at their backs and flowing INTO the City. So that kinda indicates that they were not the unwitting recipients of airborne MOOP. Instead, my guess is that they were largely the source of their own MOOP.

    IMHO. YMMV. Appropriate disclaimers apply. Etc.

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  • The Hun says:

    JV, your assessment may be spot-on. Those streets were added later, and are also the closest to the highway. But it can be pretty hard to tell what really happened out there!

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  • The Hun says:

    Christi – It’s too cold and windy for costumes! We do have a few secret sparkle ponies in our midst, I’d wager. But they are hiding under five layers of clothing at the moment.

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  • The Hun says:

    Buckstar, thank you for the intel!

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  • Linda says:

    We worked really hard to leave no trace at our camp and have photos to prove we left our camp completely clean, but there is a red/black dot on our camp site. I commented on this thread a few weeks ago and was told that it could have been anything that blew into our camp and to not worry too much about it. The rest of our camp is all green. Is there some way to find out exactly what our red/black dot was? And does that mean we failed? And if so, what does that mean?

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  • Mack'n says:

    So…about that red and yellow chunk at the 6:00 Keyhole. Anyone know anything about that camp? Does it go by any other name? Do you think those folks have been to Burning Man before? Am I being sarcastic enough?

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  • chester says:

    playa resto gps coordinates are wrong. that was proven which pink heart was retroactively changed from red to green. every single red on the map is suspect, the entire city should be rechecked. ergo frum is first camp right? it has red.

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  • Lana says:

    It was our first burn this year, and luckily a great friend of ours guided and mentored us. We were on the moop control in our camp Anita. We tried our best to extend our service outside our camp and collect little scraps in the playa and put them in our zip locks. We kept on finding cigarette butts, which is not nice at all. Also around the porter potties, we would shards of toilet paper. Other things we found were small tiny pieces that might have fell from a costume of bike.

    As we felt the need to be responsible I really hope others will feel the need as well next year. Even if it is not your moop, try to pick it up. Might be too much for the one zip lock, but if everyone is collectively collecting small pieces up and offering portable ashtrays, then we should expect a greener burn for the years to come.

    A suggestion to the welcomers. At point of entrance, maybe a little brief on how to keep things clean. I don’t feel that everyone who comes to the burn is fully aware and reads about how there are dedicated people who volunteer their time and efforts. No one likes to pick up trash after people.. Simple etiquette needs to be inquired in all of our daily habits.

    Spread the clean, it’s not hard to bend down and pick up something.

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  • G0vernor says:

    Truly admiring you guys for the great work !

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  • flashforward says:

    Just an fyi, 8 o’clock and L and that large group of RV’s was where PDiddy was camped.

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  • The Hun says:

    Linda – Thanks for asking! No, you did not fail, you totally passed with a big GREEN :)

    The red/black dots are where we found large items left behind. We understand that sometimes things like trash bags and bikes pop up in people’s camps after they’ve left. There’s no way to know if you left that, or somebody else did. So it does not affect your score.

    Thanks for moopin!

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  • The Hun says:

    chester, we are currently re-checking every GPS point and will release the final map only when we’re 100% sure on every detail. This map is a work in progress.

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  • The Hun says:

    Thanks for the support everybody, and a BIG thanks for all your cleanup efforts!!

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  • Jessica says:

    Hi – we were camped at Jaxxxson Junxxxion 915 & I. Sadly, our entire neighboring area and our camp scored yellow. We’re super sad about this and feel like we failed as a 2nd year camp. We thought we left it clean, so we’re a bit confused. What does this mean for our future and how can we get more details about why we failed, so we can improve. Thanks!! Jessica

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  • Chrispy says:

    Thank you, you wonderfully, imperfectly badass resto crew. Most of us do what we can…and then some. Y’all do more.

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  • G says:

    I hear that the BLM is shutdown, as in hello Government shutdown?
    So does this mean that their inspection is off for now?
    As long as this Government shutdown apparently had to happen, why couldn’t it have happened during the time of the event? Damn it!

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  • roscoe says:

    A wise man once said to me,”when it rains the playa compacts and spits all the moop to the top”

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  • Fire Child says:

    Thank you resto crew for all your hard work! Sending love from Reno!

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  • The Hun says:

    Jessica – I think I’ll post a little something about that, stay tuned :) and thank you for checking in and caring about your score! Green next year!

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  • The Hun says:

    G – my thoughts exactly. Yes, it is postponed until we have a government again.

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  • t groan says:

    thank god for all the free labor! Otherwise tickets would probably cost 500 dollars apiece.

    Unfortunately more & more expensive tickets are what I expect due to the borg courting more & more corporate interests.

    And yet with the increased income I’m sure the event will be dependent upon true believers for free labor.

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  • G says:

    @ t groan, back at ya with that thought ! The free/err volunteer labor idea was on my mind today in fact.

    I am in the way lower middle class income bracket, so I participate and contribute with my time and labor. In my one-of-a-few-thousand-volunteer-workers small way, the event itself is my gift. DPW, greeters, rangers, all the set up crews, Artery, Arctica, Center Camp, you name it, we all donate lots of volunteer work for the Org, and our gift is the event itself.

    I am not necessarily a “true believer”, in fact, the insights into the Org I have had strip of any sort of rosy fantasy ideas one might have. It is a nitty gritty cooperative effort like any organization of humans is with dramas, conflicts etc. Sometimes it comes across to me as way too default world in its machinations. What I do for the Org is a labor of love, and I have TONS of fun doing so. In no way do I feel exploited.

    Everyone who comes to BRC ideally brings something to contribute.

    All of that said, how is the Borg courting more corporate interests, and how would courting corporate interests increase ticket prices?

    @ Hun, I hope when I retire in a few more years I can volunteer with resto, and big hugs to you in the meantime.

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  • Schnauser says:

    We were camped at 8.15 and M and loved being out on the windy, raggedy edge of BRC meeting some very interesting passing adventurers and providing sustenance to late night arrivals and horribly trapped exodus traffic. We carried all our MOOP back to San Diego as well as a fat garbage bag of trash dumped by some arsehole in the dunnies at that intersection. I hope and suspect that the location of the toilets and the heavy passing traffic at exodus contributed to the yellow grade awarded that section as we genuinely thought we did a thorough job cleaning up our area. I did bring a dirty big RV but flew in with some first timers from Australia for my second burn and found it difficult in terms of time, cost and baggage allowances to get everything required there in a less obtrusive manner. During my two burns (2011 and 2013) I have hooked up with a solid crew from Colorado who are very accommodating re: bike transport and sharing shade structures so the Aussies are planning to bring tents next year and ditch the RV. We will likely still camp out on the wildly beautiful and remote raggedy edge though – make sure you take a trip out there one afternoon for a sunset vista and cocktails!

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  • Eric the Red says:

    The Hun,

    Has the Government shutdown caused an imposition as far as the inspection is concerned? If this had already been asked, my apologies; I wanted read/hear something directly from the front lines.

    That being said, I hope the balance of the restoration went without a hitch and I hope everyone is giving each other a pat on the back for a job well done.

    Thank you for what you do… you guys are definitely the unsung heroes and your unwavering efforts lend credence to “Leave No Trace”!

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